I was in a cave. Not a normal cave, though. This was a home. A rug on the floor, a sofa, a lounge chair, separated from the kitchen by a long counter. Designs made of large scales decorated the cold gray walls. And there were people here, too. Humans. A young woman at the stove in the kitchen, a man a little bit older than her reading a book on the sofa. A teenage boy came out of an open doorway - I could see a bed and a nightstand in the room behind him.

"She's asleep," he said, sitting down on the sofa next to his father.

"Good. Supper's just about ready," said his mother from the kitchen.

There was a loud grinding sound as a huge stone rolled away from one of the walls, revealing another entrance. A man stood there, a very tall, very frightening man. Maybe seven feet tall, very pale skin, short black hair, black eyes, black robes. Wicked grin.

"Who do you think you are?" demanded the father, jumping to his feet and heading straight for the intruder.

"No, don't-" cried the woman, but it was too late. The horrible man grabbed her husband by the throat and the shoulder, snapping his neck like a twig and dropping him to the floor.

The boy was on his feet, racing toward the man. "Don't you dare-"

The man ignored the boy completely, advancing on the woman. She was frozen, eyes wide with terror.

"So lovely to see you again, Rachel," the man said, grabbing her and pulling her toward him. The boy grabbed at the intruder's arm, but he just swung it out to the side and sent the boy flying across the room. Then he kissed the struggling woman, hard. "I want you to know, you were my favorite," he said, his hands suddenly around her throat.

She was dead when the boy got up, his legs shaking but his black eyes full of rage.

"Time to go, boy," Lucifer said, grabbing the boy by the arm and dragging him out the door.

I woke up with a start, sitting bolt upright. Pain shot through me and I fell back. Too many broken bones, too many cuts and stabs, no way I'd heal anytime soon unless I got some food.

"Look who's awake," Eric said, leering at me across a fire.

I was lying on the ground in a makeshift camp. So we weren't in Hell yet. I kind of thought Rath would have flown us there, but it looked like we were taking the long route through the Wilds. Speaking of Rath, where was he?

"Bet you could use some of this right about now, huh?" Eric teased, waving what appeared to be a chicken leg at me before biting into it.

This was not looking good for me. I wasn't bound at all - I was a prisoner of my own weak, broken body.

God, help me.

"Where's Rath?" I asked. It hurt to talk - I probably had a broken jaw. Nevertheless, my words were my only weapon right now.

Eric frowned. "Rath-sar. And I hate to break it to you, Ashley, but I get first crack at you. I might let him have whatever's left, when I'm done."

"I think you're forgetting something," I replied.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Lucifer gets me first, right?"

He scowled, and I heard deep laughter emanating from somewhere outside of my field of vision. The laughter got closer, and Rath sat down, across the campfire and about halfway between Eric and I.

"I have a message for you, Rath."

"Rath-sar. I'm listening," he said, no trace of a smile on his face in spite of his recent laughter.

"Your sister is still alive."

"Of course Diane-sare is still alive. Lucifer wants to kill her personally," he said dismissively.

"No, your half-sister. She was asleep when Lucifer attacked your family, so he didn't know about her. She's still alive."

"I think we hit her in the head a few too many times," Eric commented. "She's hallucinating."

"I'm so sorry that happened to you," I said softly, my eyes still on Rath's. I meant it. The whole scene was horrible to watch - and I wasn't actually there when it happened. They weren't my parents.

He stood, walking around the campfire toward me, and grabbed me by the collar. He slammed me back against a tree trunk, his face inches from mine. "You're lying," he growled.

Definitely some broken ribs. It was really hard to breathe. "Her name is Ivetta," I gasped.

"What is she going on about?" Eric asked.

Rath threw me over his shoulder and started walking at a brisk pace.

"Hey, what gives?" Eric shouted, running to catch up to us.

Rath didn't answer. He swung his arm out to the side, throwing Eric back into a tree, and kept walking.

So was I in deeper trouble, or was this a break for me?

He threw me down on the ground, and then he was gone, replaced by that enormous dragon I remembered from six years ago. His claws wrapped around me and my stomach dropped as he launched into the sky. He climbed higher and higher, the pressure in my head and my lungs building. I was going to pass out. Maybe I'd feel better when I woke up. Probably not.

Definitely not feeling better, I thought as I regained consciousness. At least I was lying on something softer than the ground. What was it, a bed? A sofa?

I opened my eyes. A sofa. The sofa I had seen. The same gray walls decorated in scales. Rath sitting in the same chair across from me, his cold black eyes boring into my soul.

"You still live here," I said. Not a question, an observation.

"Explain."

"Well, it's kind of dusty, but not what I would expect from a place that's been abandoned for several hundred years." I knew he wouldn't appreciate the joke, but I just had to do it.

"Diane-sare should have taught you to watch your mouth," he snapped.

"It's just Diane, actually, and she really tried." She would be so mad if she could hear me right now...

"How did you know?" he asked, back on topic.

I sighed and closed my eyes - it was getting a little easier to breathe now. "I had a vision. I saw it happen." I looked back at him, sitting like a statue, as he'd stood that night six years ago. "That was horrible," I said softly.

"You said Ivetta is still alive. That's not possible, even if she survived that night." He refused to show any emotion, any pain. Diane had refused, too, until that day when the nightmares finally got to her. She never talked about what she saw - I now knew why.

"She's like me," I said simply.

"Then where is she?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. But I know she's alive."

I closed my eyes again. Man, I was in a lot of pain. I could feel him watching me, but he was silent for a long time. Then I heard that grinding sound, the stone door being opened. I opened my eyes as he shut it behind him.

So the question remained - was I in deeper trouble, or was this a break for me?

I was still alone the next time I woke up. I sat up, carefully, breathing hard after that simple motion. If he'd been living here for a while, there was probably food in the kitchen. Could I make it there?

Mom was going to kill me when I finally made it home.

When my breathing returned to normal, I pushed myself to my feet, clutching at the sofa for support as the pain shot through me again. My right leg was definitely broken. There was dried blood where the bone had punctured skin. All the bleeding had stopped, of course, and the bone was back inside of me where it was supposed to be, but the ends hadn't knit together yet. I looked around, trying to determine the best route to take.

The door opened again, stone grinding against stone.

Rath walked in, closing the door behind him. He came over to me, giving me one small shove on the chest, which was more than enough to knock me back down onto the sofa.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked when I was able to breathe again. He wasn't in my field of vision anymore.

"I'm giving you an opportunity." He walked back over, setting a plate of food on the coffee table in front of me and sitting in his chair.

"I'm listening."

"Find Ivetta, or I take you to Lucifer."

I studied him, his face cold and impassive as ever, his eyes as hard as the rock surrounding us. "Well, that's easy enough. I'll find Ivetta." I pushed myself back up into a sitting position again, wincing.

"How?"

"I don't know," I finally gasped when I could speak again. "But I'll figure something out."

Eating was hard, at first. As was every movement. But I could feel the life flowing through me, the pain easing, the strength returning. Once I got going, I cleaned that plate really quickly. More would have been nice, actually, but that was probably pushing it with Rath. Not that I hadn't been pushing it enough.

I set the plate on the coffee table and stretched my arms above my head. "That hit the spot. Thanks." I flashed him a smile.

"You're nothing like Diane-sare," he commented.

I shrugged. "We're very similar in abilities, but that's about it. Speaking of which - I don't suppose there'd be any way I could send her a letter?"

That elicited a smirk from him. The first sign of emotion I'd seen, actually. "What do you think?"

"It was worth a shot." I looked down at my clothes and frowned. "Mom's going to kill me when I get home. She just made these a few weeks ago."

"You don't seem to understand the gravity of your situation."

I looked back up at him, meeting his cold black eyes evenly. "Of course I do. But there's no point in letting it get me down. God already gave me a vision to get me out of one mess - He'll come through again. So which room was Ivetta in? When it happened?"

He got up and I followed him through one of the open doorways. This bedroom was clearly unused - we left footprints in the dust. There was a cradle up against the wall shared with the living room. I approached it, blowing the dust away as I inspected it more carefully. "She wasn't even a year old, was she?"

He didn't answer. I straightened up and looked around the room. This was a child's room, with long abandoned toys littering the floor and a bookcase in the corner stocked with children's books. "This was your room." I turned back to him. "It must have been really hard, coming back here."

He walked out of the room without a word. I followed him out, but then I ducked into the next open door I saw. May as well familiarize myself with the layout. This was the master bedroom, and this had seen use. The neatly made bed, the bureau in the corner, a mirror, the adjoining bathroom - he'd taken up residence here. "Diane hasn't even been back to the elven forests since she was taken," I called as I explored. "Hey, mind if I get cleaned up a little bit? I feel disgusting."

"Do what you want," he said, right behind me. I turned quickly to face him.

"Geez, you're quiet. Do you have any extra clothes I could use?"

He boldly looked me up and down. A shiver went down my spine as I was reminded again of my precarious situation. "Nothing that will fit, but you can look in the bureau."

"Okay, thanks," I said, pushing past him to get to the bureau. "I'm going to need some privacy," I added, rummaging through the drawers.

"Now you're being difficult."

I turned to face him, frowning. "Knock it off. I know you're just trying to freak me out."

"Am I?" he asked, stepping closer to me. I took a step back.

"Diane said something about you once, and I'm beginning to see what she meant. She said you were the most dangerous, and the safest, sara."

"So which am I now?" He was backing me into a corner.

"Right now, you're trying to remind me that you're dangerous, but let me remind you of our agreement. I'm here to find your sister, and that's it."

"I don't remember qualifying the situation like that," he said, putting his hands on the wall on either side of me. There was still nothing but ice in those black eyes.

Think, Ashley, think. My body was almost healed now, but I was probably still about as weak as a normal human woman. My words were my only weapons.

"Do you really want to do this, in your mother's room?"

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he left. I let out a sigh of relief and went back to the bureau. He wore the same style of black robe that all the sara did, and there were a couple of extras available, so I grabbed one of those and went back to the bathroom. I really wished there were doors in this place, not just open doorways. I would just have to be quick. Hopefully he wouldn't bother me for a little while.

The hot bath felt amazing. I stained the water brown from all the dirt and blood. As usual, there were no scars. Externally, anyway. Diane had talked about internal scars. She had a lot of those. I was just starting to collect mine.

His robe swamped me - looking in the mirror, I couldn't help but laugh. It reminded me of that time Diane wore one of Mom's dresses. She looked ridiculous then, and I looked ridiculous now. Rath was a solid foot taller than me, and he was a big, muscular guy. I had always been petite. I had to hold the bottom of the robe like a high-fashion skirt so I wouldn't trip over it.

He appeared in the doorway, while I was still laughing. "Well, I'm glad I finished before you came back," I said, smiling at the hilarity in the mirror in spite of the threat he posed. "You're right - it doesn't fit very well." I walked past him, back out to the living room. "So that door goes to the flight cavern, right?" I asked, pointing to the stone door.

"Correct. Diane-sare taught you about dragons, I see." He had followed me out, but he was keeping an appropriate distance between us.

I sighed. "It's just Diane. She changed seven years ago - I know Lucifer doesn't like it, but you may as well accept it. Anyway, yeah, she taught me about all the races. You know, I thought they were all just myths before I met her?"

I continued looking around. There was a guest bedroom and another bathroom just off the main room, both as dusty and forgotten as the children's room. But there was another doorway that led to a set of stairs descending deeper into the cave.

"Where do these go?" I asked.

"The lake."

"A mer lake?" I asked excitedly.

"Mer live there, yes."

I had to force myself to take the stairs carefully, one at a time. I wasn't familiar with this place, and I really couldn't risk taking a tumble here. Odd that it wasn't getting darker the further down we went. Then I realized that there had been no visible light source anywhere, and yet the entire cave was lit up like a room bathed in sunlight. I stopped on the stairs, looking around.

"Where's the light coming from?" I asked.

"Algae."

"Huh. Cool." The ceiling was low enough in the stairwell that I could just reach it if I stood on my tiptoes. It looked like normal stone, but it was soft to the touch, like moss. "This is amazing!" I exclaimed.

"You're like a little kid," Rath said, a touch of irritation in his deep voice.

The stairs eventually met a stone platform surrounded by water. The algae on the ceiling lit up a massive cave - I couldn't even see the far wall. The surface of the water was like black glass - absolutely still, and absolutely dark. "Mer live in that?" I asked.

"Looks can be deceiving," he commented.

I turned to look at him as images flashed through my mind. "A mer took her," I said. "A friend of your parents', maybe?" I saw Rath right in front of me, but I also didn't see him at all - I was watching the scene unfold. "You and Lucifer were long gone, and Ivetta was crying. The mer was crying, too, when she saw your parents. She took Ivetta with her." The images faded, and I was looking into Rath's eyes again. "Do you still have any contact with the mer in this lake?"

"No," he said flatly. His black eyes betrayed nothing - he was just a cold statue again.

I looked back to the black water. "Well, that's where we'll have to look next. You probably don't have any kelp, though, do you?" The mer fascinated me, so I had asked a lot of questions about them. Diane told me that they grew a special kelp that, when eaten, allowed the other races to breathe underwater.

"No, but there's another way to the castle."

I looked back up at him, unable to hide my smile. "You mean this lake has one of the mer kingdoms?" I clapped my hands in excitement.

He sighed. "You do realize you're still my captive, right?"

"You sound like Diane. 'Take this seriously.' 'Keep your guard up.' 'You're too trusting.' 'Stop talking and listen.'" My smile faltered, thinking about her. "Man, I miss her."

"Why did she leave?" he asked quietly.

I studied his cold, hard face and frowned. Diane had already met up with Hiama - whether that was planned by Lucifer, or coincidental, I didn't know. The last thing she needed was another sara jumping into the mix. They definitely didn't need to know that she was looking for another like me.

"I can't tell you that. What's the other way?" I hoped he wouldn't press the matter.

"So you can hold your tongue." There was that smirk again. It sent a chill down my spine.

"Of course I can," I said, brushing past him toward the stairs.

He caught my arm and pulled me back. "Interesting thing about us. We can't drown." He was trying to intimidate me again - pretty effectively.

"Really?" I said, trying not to let him rattle me. "I guess it makes sense, with the healing and everything." My stomach was twisting.

"That was our theory, as kids. We tested it on Diane-sare."

She wouldn't talk about those years when all of them were trapped in Hell for their 'training.' My heart broke for her with this brief insight into what she endured. Now my stomach was really upset.

"You show all your thoughts and emotions on your face," he commented.

I pulled my arm free from his grip and started back up the stairs.

"Oh? No snappy come-backs?" He was right behind me.

I could imagine him on a scale, 'dangerous' on one side, 'safe' on the other. He was swinging back into that 'dangerous' side now.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't like discussing torture," I said flatly.

"How unfortunate. It's one of my favorite topics." There was a touch of amusement in his voice. All of my instincts told me to run. I had to force myself to maintain a normal walking speed, climbing the stairs one at a time.

"You said there's another way to the castle," I said, attempting to change the subject again.

"This really bothers you, doesn't it?"

We finally emerged back into the main room. I went straight to the sofa, collapsing on it. My injuries were all healed, but I would need more food and rest - or at least more time - to regain my strength and energy. I sat with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands, massaging my temples with my thumbs. The sofa shifted as he sat beside me.

"There's a river that runs beneath Hell as the sewer system. It's blocked off with grates on either end so none of us could leave."

I really didn't want to hear this.

"The currents were stronger than we thought. She didn't come up for hours." He laughed.

God, help me.

"Why are you trying so hard to make me think that you're awful?" I asked, looking up at him. As usual, his face betrayed no emotion whatsoever.

He shoved me down onto the sofa, pinning me underneath him. "Maybe because I am," he said, his breath hot on my lips. This was bad, this was really, really bad...

"So why do you care about your sister then?"

That finally got a reaction from him. His face twisted into an angry scowl. "You need to shut your mouth," he snapped.

I looked into his cold, black eyes, refusing to break eye contact. "I will, as soon as you get off of me."

A tense minute passed in silence, neither of us willing to budge, physically or otherwise. Finally, he smirked and sat up, still straddling me. "It's not going to be any fun if you can't put up more of a fight than this."

"Then maybe you should let me get some rest," I said quietly, unmoving.

"The first smart thing you've said so far." He climbed off of me and walked away.

I let out my breath and rolled onto my side, curling up tightly as I faced the back of the sofa. I did need to rest, and not just physically. There was a battle going on here, beyond what the eye could see. The battle was for his very soul, but he wasn't even aware. I closed my eyes, praying silently as I tried to relax enough to fall asleep. He kept swinging back and forth on the scale as he was tugged this way and that, but though he wasn't entirely in control of the forces driving him, it would be his choice that would ultimately determine where he landed. And that, in turn, would determine my fate, too.

God, help me. God, help him.